I fucking hate that they've ended up with this. Spurs would have been no better though.

Spurs were going to do it properly and knock the monstrosity down, build a football stadium and pay for it themselves. West Ham can brag all they want though...they'll be contemplating building a football stadium before long. Like juventus and the Milan sides found out, a bigger stadium isn't better when you can't fill it. No way they'll ever be able to fill it for more than a game or two, even in the short term. They don't fill the Boleyn as it is.

What I don't get is that how tied in to the 99 year lease are they? In the NFL stadiums are modernised and rebuilt seemingly with around about a 20 year life expectancy. I know it's different as the cities are vying to keep the franchises there, but it still seems a bit shitty to sign up to a non-football stadium for 99 years.

Spurs were going to do it properly and knock the monstrosity down, build a football stadium and pay for it themselves. West Ham can brag all they want though...they'll be contemplating building a football stadium before long. Like juventus and the Milan sides found out, a bigger stadium isn't better when you can't fill it. No way they'll ever be able to fill it for more than a game or two, even in the short term. They don't fill the Boleyn as it is.

it was boss in there during the athletics for the Olympics

wayyyyy too far from the action for a football match though

when the sprinters were warming up in the far corner of the stadium you could barely tell they were there

for 45 minutes you won't see your side attacking without the help of binoculars

when the sprinters were warming up in the far corner of the stadium you could barely tell they were there

for 45 minutes you won't see your side attacking without the help of binoculars

Yeah I appreciate it was good for athletics, I was referring to it as a monstrosity in footballing terms. One of the great things about the PL is that the crowd is so involved due to the proximity of the stands to the pitch...this will kill that. Never been to Upton Park but I imagine it can be intimidating (even still) for an opposition player...it'll be the easiest to play in now I imagine. Especially with bumper away allocations.

Spurs were still going to keep a large portion of the stadium, just make it much more football friendly, and as Eddie says pay for the bulk of it themselves. They were also going to redevelop the Crystal Palace athletics stadium and the area around it to make a 25k seat athletic stadium rather than have their stadium used which makes sense, instead the Crystal Palace stadium is getting knocked down soon.

West Ham have contributed £15m and will pay £2m a year for the stadium, the people in charge have had their pants pulled down, spent millions building, ripping down and rebuilding a stadium that they are getting a couple of million a year rent for the next 99 years. Even allowing for inflation or increases in rent that's still a pretty poor deal for the tax payers.

Yeah I appreciate it was good for athletics, I was referring to it as a monstrosity in footballing terms. One of the great things about the PL is that the crowd is so involved due to the proximity of the stands to the pitch...this will kill that. Never been to Upton Park but I imagine it can be intimidating (even still) for an opposition player...it'll be the easiest to play in now I imagine. Especially with bumper away allocations.

The way I feel about Upton Park is probably the same as any away fans coming to Goodison. It's a shit ground with lots of tradition and history in an absolute shithole of an area that no longer suits the modern day 'vision' of a football stadium.

Fuck I hope they go down this year and everyone involved ends up looking like dickheads when they have 15000 people turning up in the championship. This could easily be the ruin of them. The whole things has been played out in such an amateur and underhand fashion from all involved.

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Likes...

The way I feel about Upton Park is probably the same as any away fans coming to Goodison. It's a shit ground with lots of tradition and history in an absolute shithole of an area that no longer suits the modern day 'vision' of a football stadium.

Exactly. Upton Park has that rare quality that Goodison has: as soon as you step outside Upton Park tube station and onto Green Street, you can feel there's a football ground nearby (just like County Road), even though you can't see it. Inside the stadium everything is really real, the walls, the stands, the people, even the rather dreamlike affair with the bubbles feels like a dream sequence from your own dream, not someone else's.

And if you ever feel caught up in the illusion of glitzy glamour and the roaring, fist-pumping "passion" you see in Sky ads, you can just take a look around you, a glimpse of the outside world through the corner gaps between the stands, a quick glance at that grim, huge, yellowish-red block towering over the stadium will instantly reconnect you with reality.

So it's easy to see why the powers that be decided there's no place for that kind of thing in modern football.

The way I feel about Upton Park is probably the same as any away fans coming to Goodison. It's a shit ground with lots of tradition and history in an absolute shithole of an area that no longer suits the modern day 'vision' of a football stadium.

I'm totally the opposite. I love going to Upton Park because it retains the atmosphere of a proper football ground. It absolutely pisses on any new ground that I have been to (including the Emirates).

Oh and btw I've spoken to fans of other teams who love Goodison. eg a Coventry fan who somehow ended up at the home game vs Arsenal last season who said it was one of the best "football days" of his life... I guess he knows what its like to lose your proper home due to owners with dubious motives.

I'm totally the opposite. I love going to Upton Park because it retains the atmosphere of a proper football ground. It absolutely pisses on any new ground that I have been to (including the Emirates).

Oh and btw I've spoken to fans of other teams who love Goodison. eg a Coventry fan who somehow ended up at the home game vs Arsenal last season who said it was one of the best "football days" of his life... I guess he knows what its like to lose your proper home due to owners with dubious motives.

You'll get an easy split of fans from other teams who appreciate 'classic' grounds. Coventry fans will appreciate any ground as they're owners left them homeless. City fans I know still pine for Maine Road, and appreciate the history of Goodison, but having tasted the 'niceties' of the Etihad are swayed. You can appreciate and love things whilst still admitting that all things considered they're no longer optimal for their current use.

Tottenham and Villa are the best examples I can think of for classic grounds that go most of the way to meeting modern requirements, but even Spurs are moving on.

I've literally sat behind a post at Leeds, and spent 2 hours convinced I was going to die in a fire at The Dell, but the absolute worst ground I've been to was the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Its just not a football ground, and you get even less room per seat than at Goodison!

Apparently the deal is scandalous with WHU actually paying negative rent after me and you pay for the upkeep of the stadium etc. Apparently they could be in breach of some competition fairness rules because WHU are essentially being state funded.